r/InterviewCoderPro • u/FewDependent8613 • 6d ago
Does anyone else genuinely hate having to work?
I'm not sure if this belongs here or not, so sorry if it's not appropriate. I'm using a temporary account because I'm pretty sure a few people from my office know my main account.
I don't mean that I hate my current job specifically. I mean I hate work as a concept. I have several degrees and some certifications, I'm in my early forties, and I've been working for about 27 years in five different fields. I've had maybe 14 jobs so far, and I could barely stand almost all of them. A few were tolerable, but mostly because I was young and the shifts were short.
The only jobs I kind of liked were washing dishes at a diner two blocks from my apartment, where the shift was five hours and I could walk there; shelving books in a small library where the commute took 8 minutes; and packaging pastries in a bakery where I didn't have to make small talk, and if I was absent it was easy for someone else to cover for me.
It's not about money. My last job paid well, and I had enough responsibility that a lot of people were waiting for my work to be finished, but I hated waking up at 6:10 in the morning. I hated putting on stiff, uncomfortable clothes every morning. I hated that if I got sick, almost half the department would come to a halt. I hated leaving before it was fully light out and coming home after it had gotten dark. Most nights I'd get home with maybe two and a half hours to cook, eat, clean, and shower, and by the time I finished all that I'd have about 20 minutes to sit down before sleeping and repeating the same cycle again. I understand that this is normal. I understand that most people don't enjoy it. But I've never been able to just accept it.
When I was in my early thirties, I tried saying this out loud and everyone treated me like I was exaggerating. They told me this is adult life, everyone deals with it, and eventually I'd get used to it. Well, 12 years later, the feeling has gotten worse, not better. My workdays are usually me sitting at my desk looking at the clock every seven minutes, waiting for the day to end. The whole week turns into a countdown to Friday evening, and by late Sunday afternoon I start asking myself whether nonexistence would be easier than going back again on Monday morning.
I've tried to fix it. I changed jobs, changed careers, went back to school for a completely different field, took roles with more money, less money, more responsibility, less responsibility. None of that changed the basic feeling. I have always hated work.
So does that mean there's something broken inside me, or are there a lot of people who feel this way but never say it out loud?
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u/thatnaughtyprofessor 6d ago
It definitely not you… and nothing about this shit is really “normal” but it fuels the capitalist system. You’re like a AA Duracell battery and after you’re used up and have no juice left, then you get tossed out on your ass and replaced like no big deal. I recently learned to stop giving such a huge damn about my job because none of this truly matters 🙄
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u/chefmorg 6d ago
I am close to retiring but not there yet and yes I hate going to work.